Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni Publisher Explains Why it’ll Be Released Uncensored; Will Have Japanese Voices

DualShockers reported a couple of days ago that PQube will release Marvelous’ Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni for PS Vita without cutting any content, despite the game’s certainly titillating nature.

We reached out to PQube’s PR Executive Peter Nathaniel Fury in order to get more information, and he provided a certainly interesting explanation on the reasons behind the decision and on the challenges brought by this kind of approach, on top of confirming that the game will be released with Japanese voice overs with English subtitles.

I can confirm that Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni will be brought to the west in its original form, with content completely intact. It will be with a Japanese dub and English subtitles.

We generally don’t take on these kinds of projects if we’re not confident we can release it in the west without cutting or changing content. Changing the source material kind of defeats the purpose of doing it in the first place, so that is not something we even consider unless we literally have no other options. In terms of platform holders and ratings boards, you’d be surprised what you can get away with. Gal*Gun: Double Peace passed quite painlessly for example.

Where issues might arise in terms of publishing, is selling the title in to retailers who might be hesitant to take it. A game doesn’t just appear at retailers when we release it; a big part of the process is to go around and sell the title to each individual retailer and negotiate numbers and prices. Trying to present a game like Valkyrie Drive to a group of executives at a major retailer, who might be in their 50’s and don’t play or particularly care about games, and convince them that Valkyrie Drive is amazing and would do really well on their shelves or their website, can be quite the challenge for the sales team.

Personally, I definitely respect this kind of attitude, and I’m sure I’m not alone there. Keep fighting the good fight, PQube. Hopefully others will learn from this example.

Hailing from sunny (not as much as people think) Italy and long standing gamer since the age of Mattel Intellivision and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Definitely a multi-platform gamer, he still holds the old dear PC nearest to his heart, while not disregarding any console on the market.
RPGs (of any nationality) and MMORPGs are his daily bread, but he enjoys almost every other genre, prominently racing simulators, action and sandbox games.
He is also one of the few surviving fans of the flight simulator genre on Earth.